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Robert C. Stern
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Big Gun Battles: Warship Duels of the Second World War Kindle Edition

by Robert C. Stern (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

This naval history of WWII explores the advancing technology and tactics of battleships through a fascinating survey of ship-to-ship duels.

While many naval battles of the Second World War were decided by the torpedo or the aerial bomb, there was a surprising number of traditional ship-to-ship engagements involving the big guns of battleships and cruisers. Big Gun Battles recounts some of the most significant and technically fascinating of these gunfire duels in a narrative that combines lively storytelling with an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing victory or defeat.

Covering all theatres of the naval war from 1939 until the Japanese surrender, the selected incidents demonstrate the changing face of surface warfare under the influence of rapidly improving fire-control systems, radar, and other technologies. By 1945, battleships achieved the pinnacle of gunnery excellence.
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  1. Print length
    555 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Seaforth Publishing
  4. Publication date
    January 30, 2015
  5. File size
    22.3 MB
  6. Page Flip
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  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Big Gun Battles is a useful read for anyone interested in the surface side of the naval war, and would make an excellent introduction to the subject for the novice." The NYMAS Review

About the Author

Robert C. Stern has published more than twenty books on military and naval subjects including Battle Beneath the Waves, Destroyer Battles, Fire from the Sky, and The U.S. Navy and the War in Europe.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00SGC4WWG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seaforth Publishing (January 30, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 30, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 22.3 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 555 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

About the author

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Robert C. Stern

Robert C. Stern

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Robert C. Stern has been writing naval history for more than thirty-five years, during which time he has published ten major works and numerous magazine articles and pictorial monographs. His major works include The Battleship Holiday: The Naval Treaties and Capital Ship Design, which analyzes the impact of the naval arms limitation treaties of the 1920s and ‘30s on the development of the major warships built by the world’s navies, Fire from the Sky: Surviving the Kamikaze Threat, which is a retelling of the emergence of the kamikaze weapon in the Second World War and the strategies and tactics developed to cope with this potent threat and The US Navy and the War in Europe, which describes the often-overlooked contribution by the US Navy in the European Theater in the Second World War. His most recent work is Scratch One Flattop: The First Carrier Air Campaign and the Battle of the Coral Sea, which is part of the Twentieth-Century Battles series from Indiana University Press, telling the story of the first major carrier air battle in naval history. His other main interest is photography, which can be seen at stern-photography.com. He lives in Cupertino, CA, with his wife Beth and a very uninterested cat.

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4.2 out of 5 stars
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A nice clean copy of a used book. The battles covered include some lesser known actions. It is nice to have maps included but I was disappointed that not many photos of the ships involved were included. Still, it was a good read.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Rob
    4.0 out of 5 stars A bit confusing
    Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    The author used different measurements for guns. For example, when American and Japanese ship clashed, the Japanese guns were sized in centimeters, while the Americans were sized in inches.
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  • john hong
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very Engaging read on Capital ship actions during WW2
    Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Very well researched descriptions of battles, of WW2 Capital ship actions. Very well researched, definitively will consider other titles from the same author.
    One person found this helpful
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  • davide lye
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fast shipping!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    A nice clean copy of a used book. The battles covered include some lesser known actions. It is nice to have maps included but I was disappointed that not many photos of the ships involved were included. Still, it was a good read.
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    davide lye
    4.0 out of 5 stars
    Fast shipping!

    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2024
    A nice clean copy of a used book. The battles covered include some lesser known actions. It is nice to have maps included but I was disappointed that not many photos of the ships involved were included. Still, it was a good read.
    Images in this review
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  • deerhunter
    5.0 out of 5 stars Big Gun Battles
    Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2016
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    I haven't read this one yet but it looks to be very good. Some nice pictures and some great maps showing how the battles went down. Looking forward to diving into this one
    One person found this helpful
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  • Temis P.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2018
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    great job
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  • Charles
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Good, but Selective, Account of Naval Battles Fought with Gunfire
    Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015
    I found this book to be a generally well-written account of naval battles during World War II fought with gunfire. It is attractively published with wide margins that invite annotations and includes a comprehensive collection of maps, drawings, and photographs. The maps are particularly helpful since the author’s very thorough descriptions of some of the battles are occasionally difficult to follow on their own. I also note that there are portions of the book that rely so heavily upon jargon that they may be challenging for a general reader while at other points the use of slang and hyperbole may be irritating to a specialist.

    That said, Mr. Stern does a nice job of covering the material he decided to include. For instance, he provides a good account of the roughly eighteen-month period between the destruction of the Graf Spee and the sinking of the Bismarck that may be less well known to American readers. What I found to be frustrating was his application of the criteria that he set forth in his introduction for a battle meriting a place in his book.

    The title Big Gun Battles suggested to me that this would be a book about battles fought with big guns, or alternatively big battles fought with guns. Although the second interpretation comes closer to what Mr. Stern explains as his purpose, his application of it is highly random. He describes the battles between the British and the Italians in the Mediterranean quite well, but he says nothing of the Battle of Cape Matapan, which unquestionably included a big battle fought with big guns. He does, however, cover the Royal Navy’s use of aircraft to sink and damage Italian ships at Taranto without any gunfire. Likewise, his description of commerce raiding by the Germans during early stages of the war does involve big guns, but hardly battles, or the “warship duels” mentioned in the subtitle. Turning to the Pacific, he relates a number of cruiser and even destroyer actions but omits the confrontation between capital ships that resulted in the destruction of the Kirishima by the battleship Washington.

    I liked what Mr. Stern had to say, but I wish he had been more inclusive and said more.
    19 people found this helpful
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  • lyndonbrecht
    4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing and informative, especially on actions in the North Atantic. Seems slightly arbitrary in what is included.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2015
    This is yet another good read from Seaforth publishing. The writing is good, the illustrations rather good, maps useful. My only complaint is the selection of actions; anything involving aircraft carriers or torpedoes is left out. I think the many actions around Guadalcanal ought to be included, even if many of the ships sunk were victims of torpedoes.

    The selected actions are appropriate, and provide a great deal of context. The British-German battles include the German commerce raiding by German naval vessels, which was far more extensive than I had realized. Even if you are a naval junkie, you may find out something new.

    The battles described include the Graf Spee episode, the famed Bismarck action, and several in far Northern waters. One battle between the British and the Italians is described. The Japanese wipeout of the ABDA forces in early 1942 is described, almost with a sense of duty and valor meeting fate. A battle I had thought was obscure is covered, near the Aleutians between American and Japanese units, as is one portion of the vast battles in the Philippines.

    As an American, I had been familiar with the Pacific conflict, but found out I didn't know so much about the British-German actions in the Atlantic. For me it was worth the read for that alone.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Richard W. Crapuchettes
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2016
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    Very thorough and good reading
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Walter Yeo
    4.0 out of 5 stars The role of big guns on ships in battles in which aircraft carriers or their aircraft were not involved
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This book covers a number of sea battles in various theatres in which the aircraft carrier or their aircraft was not involved. It is also does not cover previous sea battles which the author has covered in his previous books, thereby concentrating on lesser known actions in which the big guns of the ships were instrumental in deciding the outcome of the fight
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  • John G
    4.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed the book
    Reviewed in Australia on March 2, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I enjoyed the book, but am mystified by the omission of the night engagement between the USS Washington and USS South Dakota v INJ Kirishima on 15 Nov 1942. I would have thought that this was an absolute starter for the book. Also, the night action 2 nights earlier in the melee battle involving Kirishima and Hiei v the various cruisers and destroyers under RADM Callaghan.
    Apart from those omissions, the book is very interesting and has a good account of both the overall battles and the analysis of the damage wrought on the combatant ships.
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  • C V
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book detailing Naval battles
    Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Awesome book detailing Naval battles. Author is very detailed regarding the specifics of the gunnery of each battle described. Do not regret buying this book in the slightest. Highly recommend this book.
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  • Fede
    4.0 out of 5 stars Gli ultimi duelli di artiglieria sul Mare
    Reviewed in Italy on November 19, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    "BIG GUN BATTLES" descrive e propone vari elementi di analisi su alcune battaglie navali della II G.M. combattute tra unità di superficie con le artiglierie di bordo. Gli scontri descritti sono:
    - Battaglia del Rio della Plata;
    - Battaglie navali nel Mediterraneo (1940): Punta Stilo, Capo Spada, Capo Teulada;
    - Operazioni delle unità di superficie della Kriegsmarine contro il traffico mercantile in Atlantico, Battaglia dello Stretto di Danimarca (Affondamento dello HMS Hood);
    - Battaglie dello stretto di Badung e del Mar di Giava (Pacifico 1942);
    - Battaglia delle isole Komandorski (Aleutine, Pacifico settentrionale 1943);
    - Battaglia del Mare di Barents;
    - Battaglia di Capo Nord (affondamento dello Scharnhorst);
    - Battaglia dello stretto di Surigao (Filippine 1944).
    Come si evince dall'elenco non sono compresi i sanguinosi scontri notturni del 1942 nelle Salomone tra le Unità della US NAVY e della Marina Imperiale Giapponese, in cui l'impiego dei siluri "Long Lance" giapponesi ebbe un impatto rilevante.
    Come in tutti i suoi libri STERN fa ricorso a fonti primarie in particolare dagli archivi inglesi ed americani ("Battle summaries" per la Royal Navy, "Combat narratives"), pochi i riferimenti alle fonti in lingua italiana (Ufficio Storico della M.M.).
    Le azioni, spesso protratte e confuse, sono descritte in modo efficace grazie all'ausilio della documentazione ufficiale e dei diari/memorie dei protagonisti; quasi sempre è riportato la percentuale di colpi a segno (un dato illuminante sulla difficoltà di colpire bersagli in movimento a distanze di decine di miglia e in condizioni di visibilità non sempre ideale). Per seguire l'evoluzione delle azioni sono indispensabili le cartine, qui a mio avviso il libro, ottimo come tutti i lavori di questo autore, ha un suo limite: sono riprodotti vari diagrammi e cartine ufficiali, aspetto apprezzabile, che tuttavia dato il formato del libro non sono facilmente leggibili. Anche il corredo iconografico è in generale valido, in particolare laddove disponibili le fotografie delle unità dopo gli scontri danno una misura degli effetti del tiro e della capacità notevole di incassare danni sull'opera morta da parte di unità relativamente poco protette.
    Assolutamente consigliato per chi voglia un quadro non completo ma ragionato e complessivamente accurato della guerra combattuta dalle unità di superficie; l'ampia bibliografia e l'elenco delle fonti primarie è un'ottimo strumento per approfondire (non mancano i riferimenti a vari documentati siti Internet).
    Per il lettore italiano interessato ad approfondire la battaglia di Punta Stilo é consigliabile il recente dettagliatissimo libro edito dall'Ufficio Storico MM, sia perché un po' come tutto il capitolo relativo al Mediterraneo la descrizione é abbastanza sintetica, sia perché nuove analisi basate sull'analisi di nuovi documenti forniscono un quadro più completo ed acccurato della battaglia.
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  • Roby D.
    3.0 out of 5 stars Valido libro
    Reviewed in Italy on June 4, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Come dice il titolo, non aspettatevi che l'autore discuta nel libro le battaglie aeronavali del Pacifico, o i celeberrimi scontri notturni nell'Ironbottom Sound essendosi in prevalenza decisi col siluro.
    Buono l'accompagnamento al testo delle fotografie arricchite da ampie didascalie, diverse cartine ahimè piccole per i miei occhi, testo gradevole (con alcune difficoltà dovute alla mia scarsa conoscenza di termini nautici in inglese), interessante l'analisi dei colpi messi a segno e dei loro effetti sugli scafi che li subirono.
    Si nota qua e là l'assenza di ordini di battaglia che sarebbero d'aiuto, specie per chi non è particolarmente ferrato sulla guerra nel Pacifico, nel focalizzare e memorizzare le forze in campo.
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